cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts. the house planned to reconvene on sunday evening. a christmas season storm rolled through the northeast and new england, as the death toll climbed to 16. and lisa jackson announced she's stepping down as administrator of the environmental protection agency. and online, we've got a unique year-in-review of sorts. kwame holman has more. >> holman: science correspondent miles o'brien has had a most interesting 2012. he's crawled in sewage, cuddled with dolphins and played guinea pig to lots of experiments. watch some of the best outtakes of miles' science stories on the rundown. and we round up the most important lessons we've learned about helping kids stay in school from our series, american graduate. all that and more is on our web site newshour.pbs.org. margaret? >> warner: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm margaret warner. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks among others. thank you and good